Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. Hamsters are nocturnal, sleeping during the hot days and playing in the cooler evenings. They have very poor eyesight, colorblind and can see only up to 6 Inches in front of them but have a keen sense of smell and excellent hearing. Most species of hamsters have expandable cheek pouches in which they can carry food and bedding back to their burrow where they will store food.

With potential life span of 2-3 years adult body weighs 100-150 grams (adult females are slightly larger than adult males) and Hamsters react to their names; can dig up to 3 Meters in the wild and remembers their relatives. Only a few hamster species are widely kept as pets but the hamster is the most popular of the smaller rodents kept as a pet in many countries today. So sad they are widely being used in test & research laboratories Worldwide!

“The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser – in case you thought optimism was dead.”

Is there any proof that optimism leads to better results?
Walter Isaacson says, “[Steve Jobs] taught himself to stare without blinking so he could talk people into things — they called it the reality distortion field….He would make people believe they could do the impossible, which is why he was such a charismatic business leader.”

Is Optimism detrimental?

Generally, ‘optimism’ is not detrimental but is a good positive mental attitude.

However, blind optimism, obsessively optimistic, optimism with arrogance, irrational optimism, etc. can backfire on the individual.

In philosophy, ‘optimism’ can refer to ‘optimistic’ on the existence of god and going to heaven after physical death. The non-theistic would then be taking a ‘pessimistic’ stance in contra to this sense of ‘theistic optimism’. This theistic optimism can be detrimental to humanity arising from the excesses of theism.
Further debate on this subject would be too philosophical and hence full stop here!

I took this image without any planning in mind; Just a casual shot while I was desperately looking for some creative photographic subject. Then I searched for some suitable text and came up with these inspiring quotes/words and a story to back up optimism. All credit goes to those great people who shared the original thoughts.

The story is so old that hunting peacock was legal then… Don’t skip, read on!!

Optimism – A short story:

There was a king who once went to the jungle for hunting. He was accompanied by one of his ministers. While the minister was trying to arrow down a peacock, he happens to hurt the king’s index finger unknowingly. The king turns very furious. He decides to maroon the minister deep in the forest. Doing so, he starts off to his palace. On the way, he encounters some tribal inhabitants. They immediately take custody of the king and prepare him for a ritual sacrifice. While just about to kill the king, one of them notices the king’s bleeding finger. He informs this to all his fellowmen. They then let the king go, saying that an incomplete life can not be given as a sacrifice to the God.

The king realizes that the mistake committed by the minister has now saved him. He goes back to the minister, narrates to him what had happened, apologizes and thanks him. The minister being very optimistic says that it is he who has to thank the king for marooning him. Bewildered, the king asks what for he is thanked? The minister replies that if he had not been marooned by the king, the tribal would have killed him for being perfectly healthy.

Saying so, the minister concludes that there is always something good in whatever happens. Let’s look at the better part of things.

HMV Style 7:- 1899 – the His master’s Voice or HMV, is a famous music trademark, and was the name of a large record label for a number of years.

The name His master’s Voice or HMV was coined in the year 1899, from the title of painting of Nipper the dog listening to a gramophone.

Horn gramophones continued to be made right up to 1930. For the most part, however, they began to fall from favor in the early 1920’s. A few years before the First World War machines began to be made with the horn turned ‘upside-down’ and fitted inside the cabinet.

Bearing the beloved image of the hound with his ear turned to the brass trumpet; this delightful antique will be a prized collection for those who love this vintage music machine!

I found this master piece in a showcase of a hotel lobby at Chennai India. Truly a great subject for photography due to its rarity and I am happy I had my camera ready then and snapped a few close shots before some hotel staff could raise objections!

Light is the basis of all photography. Without light, we are all left in the dark.

Light is one of a photographer’s most important considerations. In fact, any photograph captures the effect of light on objects, whether taken in natural light or the warm glow of incandescent light. A photographer who understands how the eye and lens perceive the color spectrum can make full use of light in photography.

Here is a series of images taken by me, solely for fun and learning to play with light & colors.

(All my images are my own, copyrighted and cannot be used in Blogs, websites are in any other media in any form.)